story: “Nashua”
author: Sara Majka
year: 2016
where: on the golden sofa
note: the kind of story that makes you want to write stories
a line: “I cried some nights as I wanted a child back then and I was almost past the point of being able to have one.”
story: “Saint Andrew’s Hotel”
author: Sara Majka
year: 2016
where: Greece
note: from Cities I’ve Never Lived In
a line: “Peter stayed in the hospital until he was twenty-one; nobody could find his parents, and the hospital had put him to use in the kitchen.”
story: “Minitures”
author: Sara Majka
year: 2016
where: Flight to Athens
note: from Cities I’ve Never Lived In
a line: “One day I reached out and touched the man I was tutoring. It didn’t surprise him, but it surprised me.”
story: “Reverón’s Dolls”
author: Sara Majka
year: 2016
where: Flight to Athens
note: from Cities I’ve Never Lived In
a line: “Maybe ten or eleven years ago, when I was in the middle of a divorce from a man I still loved, I took the train into the city.”
story: Cities I’ve Never Lived In
author: Sara Majka
year: 2015
where: Fiumicino Airport, Roma
note: As someone who has traveled places grand and bland alone, this story felt sometimes like a mirror.
a line: “I thought that those few people passing out food—with their hands in little plastic gloves, and their cross behind them—should not be our major defense against this kind of poverty; as a defense it felt hopeful, frail, and largely hidden.”
bonus line: “I said that art can end up being compassionate—because you’re trying to communicate to people and that’s a compassionate act—but making it is often unkind.Artists take images and stories from people without telling them, and artists are doing it for their own ends, or for the ends of art. Even if they have morals or set limits, they are still taking from people.” …I think artists know what she means.
